hail to the thief
I tried updating since the election before this, but livejournal lost it, so here I go again. My mood since the election has gone from pissed, to depressed, to accepting, back to pissed; read on. My other post was about how George W. Bush won the election because there were gay marriage ban initiatives on the ballot in 11 states, and 10 of them passed by an overwhelming majority. The idea that depriving someone who's an American citizen of their rights doesn't seem like a "moral value" to me, but I suppose we've done it before as a country and eventually gotten things right, so hopefully we'll get this right eventually too. However, it might not be the fundamentalist Christian vote that put Bush over the top, it might have been the voting machines. Last night I was told about 2 websites, www.democraticunderground.com and www.blackboxvoting.org (www.blackboxvoting.com also has a lot of information). These talk about the fact that in states where black box/ touch-screen voting machines were used, there were large discrepancies between the exit polls and the actual turnout. Since there is no paper trail on these electronic machines, there's no way to verify the results. On the other hand, in the states where paper ballots (which can easily be verified) were used, there were very small discrepancies. Before the election the head of one of the companies that makes a lot of the machines used (Diebold) promised that he would do everything he could to give the election to George W. Bush. In addition to this, on Friday there was a screening on-campus of the movie Unprecedented, which documents the voting shenanigans that took place in Florida in 2000, and one of the officials they talked to about touch-screen voting said that because he knew about the code, he could press some of the buttons at the same time and change the outcome of the election on that machine to make it for whoever he wanted. The only person in the media who has even picked up this story a little is Keith Olberman on his show Countdown on MSNBC. The mainstream media is either to scared to report it or has a vested interest in it not being reported. They only way to get this addressed is to get enough people talking about it and complaining about it, to other people, to the media, to our elected officials in Washington and elsewhere, faster this spreads the better, because we're running out of time. Apparently, an opposing politician's concession speech isn't legally binding. the only thing that is is the vote totals. In other words there's still time to keep Bush out of office for the next 4 years. Even if that can't be accomplished, at least his "mandate" can be taken away.
In local elections, Clavelle (the Democratic challenger for Gov.) and Rivers (the Democratic challenger for Lieutenant Gov.) pretty much got their asses handed to them. People are speculating that now that Clavelle's got his name out more he might try for statewide office again in '06. There's also speculation about Jeffords not running for re-election in the same year. If that were to happen, it would create a window of opportunity for several of VT's more prominent politicians. Possibilities include Bernie, Gov. Douglas, Clavelle, Dean, and anyone else that wanted to try to go for it. If Bernie went for it, that would open up his House seat to the same people. In addition, this will probably be Leahy's last term, so in 6 years, VT politics will look a lot different. Dean might not factor into it if he chooses to go for a different post. I've heard he's considering going for the leadership of the DNC, which would be awesome, but I'd prefer President Dean in '08. To get back to elections that have already taken place, the Republicans won the state auditor's office, but the Democrats were able to get control of the House. So the Gov. and Lt. Gov. are rep. but both houses of the Legislature are dem. It should be interesting.
In personal news, I had an enjoyable weekend. Friday night after watching Unprecedented and the 3-on-3 tournament, there was beirut playing in the suite. Pat and I (who had never played before) played against Mike and Allen (who had). Pat and I used grape soda, Mike used Coke, and Allen used beer. In a best of 3 match, they won the first game by 3, we won the second by 6, and they won the third by 1.
On Saturday, Allen, Eric and I went to the gym and got in 5 games of racquetball. I didn't win any of them, but I'd only ever played a few times before that. At night, Pat, Eric, JvL, Jo, and I went to Yankee Lanes for the galactic bowling. I didn't do all that great, but I got 2nd in the 1st of 4 games. I also found out that I had my appendix out, so thank you to everyone who sent me their best wishes. Unbeknownst to me, Heather, Ashley, Nathan, and James were there too, along with several people that I didn't know. I hadn't seen any of them for a while, so I was happy to get a few minutes to talk to them. Today Nathan goes back for his final training things before going to the Middle East for a year. First to Kuwait and then into Iraq. I'll be praying for him and I'm sure he would appreciate the prayers of anyone else who remembered. After getting back from bowling, we played some Soul Caliber 2 with JohnDon.
On Sunday Chris, Carl, Allen, Pat, JvL, Christina, and I got in an hour of basketball. There was also homework and stuff.
Yesterday I had to deliver the Shakespearean monologue that I had been assigned, and I was told that that was the best that I had ever done it, so I was pumped about that. Then we started talking about impersonations and I busted out the Clinton and people were impressed. I went out to dinner with the family, and got back in time to see Shenandoah Shakespeare Express perform 12th Night. There always reliable to be entertaining. Afterward I got to say hi to Kirk, which is always good since I never see him anymore. I knew the show would run past 8, so I had Pat covering for me on WWPV, but it ran about an hour longer than I thought it would, so I didn't get there until almost 9:30. That's pretty much it, except that yesterday was the first snow of the winter, and most of the people I know were excited. It's snowing lightly again right now, but none of it's sticking. Leave comments as you see fit and I'll keep you posted.
In local elections, Clavelle (the Democratic challenger for Gov.) and Rivers (the Democratic challenger for Lieutenant Gov.) pretty much got their asses handed to them. People are speculating that now that Clavelle's got his name out more he might try for statewide office again in '06. There's also speculation about Jeffords not running for re-election in the same year. If that were to happen, it would create a window of opportunity for several of VT's more prominent politicians. Possibilities include Bernie, Gov. Douglas, Clavelle, Dean, and anyone else that wanted to try to go for it. If Bernie went for it, that would open up his House seat to the same people. In addition, this will probably be Leahy's last term, so in 6 years, VT politics will look a lot different. Dean might not factor into it if he chooses to go for a different post. I've heard he's considering going for the leadership of the DNC, which would be awesome, but I'd prefer President Dean in '08. To get back to elections that have already taken place, the Republicans won the state auditor's office, but the Democrats were able to get control of the House. So the Gov. and Lt. Gov. are rep. but both houses of the Legislature are dem. It should be interesting.
In personal news, I had an enjoyable weekend. Friday night after watching Unprecedented and the 3-on-3 tournament, there was beirut playing in the suite. Pat and I (who had never played before) played against Mike and Allen (who had). Pat and I used grape soda, Mike used Coke, and Allen used beer. In a best of 3 match, they won the first game by 3, we won the second by 6, and they won the third by 1.
On Saturday, Allen, Eric and I went to the gym and got in 5 games of racquetball. I didn't win any of them, but I'd only ever played a few times before that. At night, Pat, Eric, JvL, Jo, and I went to Yankee Lanes for the galactic bowling. I didn't do all that great, but I got 2nd in the 1st of 4 games. I also found out that I had my appendix out, so thank you to everyone who sent me their best wishes. Unbeknownst to me, Heather, Ashley, Nathan, and James were there too, along with several people that I didn't know. I hadn't seen any of them for a while, so I was happy to get a few minutes to talk to them. Today Nathan goes back for his final training things before going to the Middle East for a year. First to Kuwait and then into Iraq. I'll be praying for him and I'm sure he would appreciate the prayers of anyone else who remembered. After getting back from bowling, we played some Soul Caliber 2 with JohnDon.
On Sunday Chris, Carl, Allen, Pat, JvL, Christina, and I got in an hour of basketball. There was also homework and stuff.
Yesterday I had to deliver the Shakespearean monologue that I had been assigned, and I was told that that was the best that I had ever done it, so I was pumped about that. Then we started talking about impersonations and I busted out the Clinton and people were impressed. I went out to dinner with the family, and got back in time to see Shenandoah Shakespeare Express perform 12th Night. There always reliable to be entertaining. Afterward I got to say hi to Kirk, which is always good since I never see him anymore. I knew the show would run past 8, so I had Pat covering for me on WWPV, but it ran about an hour longer than I thought it would, so I didn't get there until almost 9:30. That's pretty much it, except that yesterday was the first snow of the winter, and most of the people I know were excited. It's snowing lightly again right now, but none of it's sticking. Leave comments as you see fit and I'll keep you posted.